Soil Amendments

Today was the first day that we went to the community garden plot to do actual gardening. We've been there for the orientation in late March, and met my partner there to assess the rototilled plot last week. We did stake out the planting areas then. Today we took tools, compost and a bag of lime and left feeling like we'd accomplished something. If anything these photos make great before shots.

Plot # 40 after tilling was done April 29th

Our wagon full of compost and lime

The planting beds after weeding and working in the lime.

I finally decided to hire a guy who also has a garden plot there to do the tilling. It turned out to be the best decision. Not only did he save us the time of  borrowing a truck and tiller, he also took a look a the condition of the soil and made some suggestions for adding lime, compost and a granular fertilizer.

I've gardened here for years and have never added lime to the soil. I know that our soil is naturally acidic, which is why the rhododendrons like it here. But never really thought about balancing the ph. I'm following his advice as closely as I can (just can't do the 2-3 yards of compost in one day). So, we applied the lime and worked it in a bit, worked in 2 bags of organic compost, then sprinkled the plant areas.

Weed removal

My plot seems to be in the exact middle of 3 weed/compost piles. On our way back to the car we used the wagon to deposit our weeds in one of them. Next trip includes adding more compost. I've got plants here ready to go to the garden, but I'm going out of town this weekend, so I'll wait until next week to plant - on the off chance that we have more warm, sunny weather and they need watering.